December 2011

I'm helping to judge a cocktail contest in which bad-ass women bartenders make cocktails as fast as they can and then we judge how they actually taste. You are in charge of cheering and drinking. You should buy a ticket because this involves: Significant numbers of cocktails on a Sunday afternoon with pretty much everyone good in the local bartending community. Empowerment of female bartenders. The money goes toward breast cancer education, prevention and research. This is 100% win. You'll want to watch this video from the New York event. Speed Rack Sneak Preview from Speed Rack on Vimeo. The...
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Opening January 3, 2012 in Emeryville near San Francisco is Honor Bar. At the helm of the operation is Alex Smith, formerly of Gitane, Smuggler's Cove, and Gather. Also joining the crew are Reza Esmaili (Smuggler's Cove, Conduit, Long Bar), Peter Vestinos (former Chicagoan, Long Bar), and Jason Hubert (Adesso, Plum Bar). Along with Prizefighter, this makes two brand new cocktail bars in Emeryville and yet another in the East Bay area. I'll be checking out the bar next week and will report back. I see: balsamico amaro, acid phosphate, tons of sherry, and interesting liqueurs. Honor Bar Menu winter,...
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A few months ago I created a simple drink I called the Fifth Season, as it was sort of summery yet also sort of wintery. A couple of weeks ago I posted it to my blog on FineCooking.com. It's another spicy ginger drink, not so radically different from The Tackler I wrote about last week. That one paired ginger liqueur and allspice. This one uses ginger syrup and cinnamon. Anyway, it's good drinking. I hope you enjoy it. The Fifth Season By Camper English 2 fl. oz. Aged Cachaca (Novo Fogo preferred) 1 fl. oz. Fresh Lemon Juice 1 fl....
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I recently received a review copy of The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook by Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin. The book has about 20 cocktail recipes and 50 food recipes. Cocktail recipes include the standard Manhattan, Martini, Bloody Mary, Whisky Sour, etc. but also some drinks more stuck in the 1960s like the Stinger, Brandy Alexander, Tom Collins, and Blue Hawaii. What is interesting about both the drink and the food recipes is that the authors didn't just hear a reference in the show to a Blue Hawaii and then print a standard recipe for it: in every case possible they...
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I created a not-very-complicated but super delicious and spicy cocktail called The Tackler. First I put it up on Fine Cooking. It contains genever, allspice dram, and ginger liqueur. Then 12 Bottle Bar featured it in this post, with one of the longest drink-related historical tangents ever. They delve into the Christmas Truce, a football game played by opposing sides of World War I during a 2-day truce. Pour yourself a cocktail before reading it: it's a doozy.
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Alcademics reader Warren mailed me a picture of a sugar packet he picked up near Cancun. It's labelled "Mascabado," which is the same thing as muscovado. According to Sugar.org, "Muscovado sugar, a British specialty brown sugar, is very dark brown and has a particularly strong molasses flavor. The crystals are slightly coarser and stickier in texture than "regular" brown sugar." The Sugar Spirit Project is sponsored by Bacardi Rum. Content created and owned by Camper English for Alcademics. For the project index follow this link.
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New Booze is a sub-blog of Alcademics. Posts are announcements of new liquor (and occasionally other cocktail-related products) hitting the market.
All information comes from press releases and are not reviews!